Stephen F. Austin
#8 Texas A&M - Corpus Christi
Top-Seeded Ladyjacks Clash with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Opening Match of Southland Conference Tournament
11/15/2018 2:25:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
SFA comes in riding nation's longest active winning streak (26 matches)
2018 Southland Conference Tournament | Quarterfinals | Tournament Central | Tickets
Match Thirty-Two
#1 SFA (29-2) vs. #8 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (9-20)
Friday, Nov. 16 | 11:00 a.m. | Prather Coliseum (3,900) | Natchitoches, La.
Live Stats | Watch (Southland Digital Network) | SFA Match Notes
THE FIRST SERVE
• The SFA volleyball team embarks on a quest for its first NCAA Tournament berth in over a decade Friday morning at Prather Coliseum in Natchitoches, La., when the top-seeded Ladyjacks
open the 2018 Southland Conference Tournament by taking on eighth-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christ at 11:00 a.m.
• Tickets for the 2018 Southland Conference Tournament can be purchased on-site at Prather Coliseum. Single-day ticket prices have been set as $10 for adults and $5 for youths and seniors. A complete Southland Conference Tournament pass option is also available for $20 for adults and $10 for seniors and youths. The complete Tournament pass allows fans access to all seven matches of the tournament.
• Students from all Southland Conference institutions will be admitted free of charge as long as they possess a valid student ID. All children under the age of three will also be allowed in free of charge.
• Tony Taglavore will have the call of the opening match of the Southland Conference Tournament on the Southland Digital Network.
• Friday's tilt with the Islanders marks the 31st time in program history and the 30th time in SFA head coach Debbie Humphreys' tenure that SFA is taking part in the Southland Conference Tournament.
• SFA holds a 28-27 all-time record in the Southland Conference Tournament including a 7-5 mark as the number-one seed.
• This season marks the seventh time that the Ladyjacks have been the top overall seed for the tournament. SFA previously held the number-one seed designation in 1995, 1996, 2005, 2006, 2014 and 2017.
• SFA has claimed four Southland Conference Tournament championships in program history (1994, 2997, 1999 and 2006).
• Friday's morning's showdown with the Islanders is SFA's first meeting with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the Southland Conference Tournament. The Islanders are one of three Southland Conference teams SFA has never faced off against in the league tournament (Incarnate Word and New Orleans are the other two).
SCOUTING TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
Overall vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi | 13-7 (.650)
In Nacogdoches, Texas | 8-3 (.727)
In Corpus Christi, Texas | 5-4 (.556)
At neutral sites | 0-0 (.000)
Streak | SFA won one
Last five matches | 2-3 (.400)
Last 10 matches | 5-5 (.500)
In three-set matches | 10-4 (.714)
In four-set matches | 1-2 (.333)
In five-set matches | 2-1 (.667)
Humphreys vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi | 13-7 (.650)
Green vs. SFA | 2-2 (.500)
Last meeting | at SFA 3, A&M-CC 0 (9/29/18)
• By virtue of a 3-0 victory over Incarnate Word on the final day of the regular season, the Islanders punched their ticket to the Southland Conference Tournament and finished in a four-way tie for fifth place in the league standings.
• By invoking tiebreaker rules, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was seeded eighth based on a 1-3 head-to-head record against the other teams it was tied with for fifth place (Houston Baptist, McNeese and Northwestern State).
• Dual-threat Madison Green earned All-Southland Conference First Team honors on Wednesday morning and ranks third in the league in service aces per set (0.34) and seventh in assists per set (7.52).
• Freshman Rachel Young is one of the Islanders' top attackers, hitting .309 on the year. That's the sixth-highest percentage by any player in the Southland Conference and her 2.25 kills per set average is second only to Julia Carter (2.56) on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's squad.
• Chloe Simon (2.17 kills/set), Sam Dumity (1.96 kills/set) and Green (1.87 kills/set) are three more of the Islanders' top offensive weapons.
• No Islander is averaging more than 2.90 digs per set and Jenna Krenek tops the team charts with 2.89 scoops per frame.
• Texas A&M-Corpus Christi averages 1.23 blocks per set with Dumity's per-set average of 0.68 serving as the team's top mark.
• The Islanders are 0-6 in neutral site matches this season and 2-10 in road tilts. Seven of the squad's nine wins in 2018 have come at home.
LET'S TALK STREAKS (AND WINS)
• SFA's 26-match winning streak is currently the longest in the nation at the moment. Top-ranked BYU has won its first 25 matches to begin the season to possess the nation's second-longest active winning streak
• That winning streak by SFA is also tied for the longest in program history. The 2006 edition of the Ladyjacks also won 26 in a row which included the program's first - and so far only - NCAA Tournament victory.
• SFA is a perfect 11-0 in road matches this season. That makes the Ladyjacks one of only two NCAA Division I volleyball teams in the land who have not lost a true road match this season (BYU is the other). Also, the Ladyjacks' 11-match winning streak in road matches is the lengthiest in the nation.
• Not only is SFA perfect on the road, but it is perfect inside Shelton Gym this season, too. The Ladyjacks are 14-0 on their home floor and have won 15-straight matches there dating back to last season. That gives SFA the nation's eighth-longest active home court winning streak and makes it one of 16 teams in the land this year that haven't lost a home match.
• Dating back to last season, SFA has also won 17 consecutive Southland Conference matches - the seventh-longest active in-conference winning streak in all of NCAA Division I volleyball.
• It has now been over one calendar year since a Southland Conference foe hit over .200 against the Ladyjacks, too. The last Southland adversary to hit .200 or better against SFA was Texas A&M-Corpus Christi who hit .267 in a 3-0 win over SFA on October 31, 2017 inside Shelton Gym.
• No team in the nation has amassed more wins so far than SFA. The Ladyjacks' 29 victories are three more than the next closest team in the land. Pittsburgh, Denver and East Tennessee State have each won 26 matches so far in 2018.
SOUTHLAND STRONGEST
• SFA finished off the program's fourth perfect run through the Southland Conference regular season schedule last Saturday in New Orleans when the Ladyjacks downed New Orleans 3-0.
• The Ladyjacks previously went unbeaten in Southland Conference play 2005 (19-0), 2006 (16-0) and 2014 (16-0).
AWARDS SEASON
• As a result of their perfect run through the Southland Conference in 2018, SFA saw a number of its team members - as well as its head coach - bring in an impressive haul of All-Southland Conference hardware.
• 31st-year head coach Debbie Humphreys was named the Katrinka Jo Crawford Coach of the Year by the league for the second-straight season and the seventh time in her tenure as SFA's bench boss. Humphreys previously earned that honor in 1992, 1994, 2004, 2006, 2014 and 2017.
• Humphreys has led SFA to 10 Southland Conference regular season titles in her tenure. The 12 other current Southland Conference members have a combined 10 titles between them.
• For the first time in her career, junior setter Ann Hollas was named the Southland Conference Setter of the Year and also earned a spot on the All-Southland Conference First Team.
• Hollas was joined on the All-Southland Conference First Team be senior outside hitter Haley Coleman and junior middle blocker Danae Daron. Both Coleman and Daron have earned All-Southland Conference First Team honors twice in their respective careers.
• Senior middle blocker Makenzee Hanna was listed among the group of All-Southland Conference Honorable Mention winners.
DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS
• Opposing offenses haven't had a whole lot of luck generating gaudy termination numbers against the Ladyjacks' defense this season.
• SFA currently ranks third among all NCAA Division I volleyball teams with an opponent hitting percentage of .136.
• Five of SFA's last six opponents have been held below a .100 attack percentage.
• That low opponent attack percentage has been made possible by one of the most dominant defensive front rows in the nation. The Ladyjacks have racked up a Southland-best 286.5 blocks which is the ninth-highest total among all NCAA Division I volleyball teams.
• Most of those blocks have come courtesy of Danae Daron, Makenzee Hanna and Anyia Williams. Daron ranks 40th nationally in blocks per set (1.28) and 27th in the land with 129 total rejections. Williams, a sophomore is 60th nationally in blocks per set (1.21) and 161st in total blocks (104) while Hanna is 247th nationally with 0.96 blocks per set and 175th in total blocks with 102.
BUT OFFENSE DOESN'T HURT, EITHER
• Thanks to a varied offensive attack, SFA has not had to rely heavily on the contributions of just one player so far this year.
• Five players are averaging at least two kills per set and no Ladyjack owns a kills per set average greater than 2.86. Senior Haley Coleman leads the way having put down 2.86 kills per set while senior Peyton Redmond ranks second on the team with 2.33 kills per set.
• Junior Danae Daron (2.31 kills/set) is one of three SFA players with over 200 terminations this season and senior Makenzee Hanna (2.00 kills/set) is another.
• Junior Xariah Williams has been an important bench contributor for SFA and averages 2.05 kills per set through her 43 sets played.
SERVICE PRESSURE IS KEY
• All the way around, SFA uses service pressure to get its opponents off-balance from the beginning of every match. Coleman has amassed a team-leading 30 service aces so far this season, but four Ladyjacks have accumulated 20 or more winners from the service line.
• Included in that group are Redmond (24 aces), Hollas (23 aces) and senior setter McKenzie Brewer (20 aces).
AND WE'RE SMART, TOO
• 2018 Southland Conference Setter of the Year Ann Hollas and All-Southland Conference First Team pick Haley Coleman received another dose of good news Wednesday afternoon when those two saw their names appear on the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District Volleyball teams. The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) made the announcement in a press release.
• Hollas was placed on the District 7 First Team while Coleman earned a spot on the District 7 Second Team. Of the 16 players among District 7's First and Second Teams, six of them compete for Southland Conference institutions.
• With the announcement on Wednesday, Hollas is now a two-time Academic All-District honoree while Coleman latched onto her first Academic All-District Honor. Hollas possesses a 4.0 GPA in biology while Coleman carries a 3.94 GPA in kinesiology.
COMING UP NEXT
• Should the Ladyjacks defeat the Islanders in the opening round of the 2018 Southland Conference Tournament, they would take on the winner of fourth-seeded Abilene Christian and fifth-seeded Houston Baptist at noon Saturday inside Prather Coliseum. That match would be the first of two Southland Conference Tournament semifinal showdowns and will be broadcast on the Southland Digital Network.
-SFA-
